My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer

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Posted by docshu at 10:29AM (-07:00)
Five Weeks After
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
I completed radiation treatments 5 weeks and 1 day ago. Today I visited Dr Holmes, my
Internist. My total cholesterol and blood sugar are down (good news), but my HDL is
down 10 points and is way too low. This is because I have not gotten much exercise
lately and have been getting niacin flushes due to having to take niacin without much
food, as I have not much appetite.
I also had an appointment with Dr John, my radiation oncologist. My skin has healed, and
the ulcer I saw on my tonsil has also healed. I feel like I am doing about as well as could
be expected. My taste buds are slowly reviving. I invented a device to clean my tongue
while in the shower last night. A toothbrush is too tall and makes me gag. Something flat
and wide would work better. Before I tried to patent this, I found numerous devices
already available, and have tried one and found it works better than a toothbrush.
Two weeks from today, I leave for Montreal and Philadelphia. I hope I can taste the
Montreal bagels and the onion soup from Ty Breiz. The other day I did a test run on onion
soup at Mimi's. It was not very tasty, but I still had seconds.
I have been spending a lot of time watching the Giants on TV, with the help of TIVO. I can
thank them for helping me pass the time in the past two months. Go Giants. Still in first
place as I write this.
Here I am. My neck looks like I never had the radiation. I have lost weight and today I am
wearing size 34 jeans, and they fit. I will try not to gain it all back.
I like to include a photo of somebody better looking than me. This is Bel, Gary and
Dana's youngest daughter. As you can see, she loves to eat.
My Battle with Merkel Cell Cancer